Running Up That Hill
by Lilsami29
Summary: After living in foster homes & group homes, Troy's adopted by the Danforth's, making his life take a 180 with money, cars, & trips. What happens when his new life comes with new obstacles & new people like Gabriella, the mysterious girl next door?
1. It'll Kill Ya

**TITLE: Running Up That Hill**

******AUTHOR: **Lilsami29

**RATING:** T

**FEEDBACK: **Please. It makes me feel good

**DISCLAIMER:** don't own it. this is the disclaimer for the entire story since I always forget

**PAIRING/CHARACTERS:** Troyella eventually and the rest of the wildcats

**SUMMARY: ** Troy's adopted by Lisa and Tom Danforth after being shuffled from home to home before being put in a group home. He may have a brand new life but he still carries the baggage from his old one. With his new brother Chad and his group of friends, Troy immediately fits right in but is intrigued by the mysterious girl next door, Gabriella, who's equally intrigued by him. When the group and their families take a trip to Colorado to stay at Sharpay's house in the mountains, they get to know each other better but will sparks fly?

So I haven't published a story in a while like 2 years actually. And this is my first HSM story that I've published. I've written a lot of them but never published them. So...

**_Hope you like it._**

The sandy blond haired boy sat in the 1997 blue Camry, watching the large houses pass him by. He pulled the slightly oversized blue beanie down farther on his head before leaning it against the window.

He had no idea what to expect, looking out the window. His arms were beginning to get cold in only a thin black t-shirt so he reached into his bag in the back seat and grabbed the grey hoodie that he had stuffed in the top. He glanced at the clock to see it was almost ten at night.

"Troy?" His caseworker, Tony, said as he stopped the car at the bottom of a driveway leading up to a large stucco home. Troy's head snapped up from where he had been staring at his scuffed up vans and looked into the pale green eyes.

"Yes sir" He said quietly.

"Welcome to your new home." Tony said smiling at him. Tony threw open the car door, letting the cold winter air in. "You stay here while I go knock on the door, K?"

"Whatever" Troy mumbled. As soon as Tony knocked was welcomed into the house by someone Troy couldn't see, he opened the car door and stepped out.

Troy reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled, almost empty package of cigarettes. He pulled one out and lit it.

"You shouldn't smoke, you know" An angelic voice said from out of now where.

Troy snapped his head over to face the petite girl. She had dark brown curls that cascaded down her back.

"It's a stress reliever" He said shrugging.

"It'll kill you"

"So?"

"You wanna die?" Troy could detect a slight British accent in her words.

"It's better than the hell I'm living in now" The girl went silent at that.

"What are you doing at the Danforth's"

"Stuff"

"You're their new son aren't you. The one they adopted"

"So what if I am"

"You're lucky. The Danforth's are really nice"

"So I've heard"

"Troy! How many times have I told you not to smoke" Tony said walking back down the driveway, only to snatch the cigarette out of Troy's mouth and stomp it to the ground.

"Are you ready?"

"Yeah"

"Bye" The girl said just as a corvette pulled up and she got in, laughing with whoever was in the car.

"Who was that?" Tony asked as Troy grabbed his duffel out of the back seat along with his rucksack.

"I guess their neighbor" He said shrugging.

"You like her"

"No I don't" Troy said, bitterly.

"Yeah you do. I've known you since you were ten. I can tell"

"Whatever"

When they reached the top of the driveway, there was a thin, African-American couple standing there with a teenage boy with an afro and a little girl with braids. She was standing behind the teenager and Troy couldn't tell if she was scared or shy.

"Troy Bolton, this is Lisa and Tom Danforth."

"It's nice to meet you"

"Troy, this is our son, Chad. He's your age. And our daughter Kayla, who's 5." Troy smiled what he hoped was a gracious smile at them.

"It's nice to meet you"

"Well, it's cold out here so let's get inside"

"Troy, I'll be checking every once in a while just to see how your doing" Tony said hugging Troy before shaking the Danforth's hands and walking to his car.

"You've got a very nice house, Mr. and Mrs. Danforth"

"Thank you, Troy. And you can call us Tom and Lisa" Tom took Troy's small bag and sat it on the staircase before taking his duffel and doing the same.

"I've got some paperwork to finish up so I'll be in my office" Tom said kissing Lisa on the cheek and walking down a hallway.

"Troy, do want Chad or I to show you around?" Lisa asked as they still stood in the foyer.

"Um... it doesn't matter" Troy muttered.

"I'll let Chad, since you might be more comfortable with him.

"K"

"You came from San Diego right?" Chad asked leading Troy through the house. He walked through a doorway to a large, open kitchen. There were the newest, stainless steel appliances and black marble counters. An average sized plasma screen sat on the wall.

"Yep" Troy answered.

"Well, as you can see this is the kitchen. Over there's the pantry where we keep the cereals and stuff like that. Bagels are always on the counter, even if someone puts them up, they still end up on the counter. Do you drink coffee?"

"Yeah"

"Coffee pots over there, cups are above it. Sugar and creme are next to it"

"Thanks"

"So, let's see. If you open that door and go down the stairs, you're in the basement. There's a storage room down there but there's also a gym with like everything you need down there. Threw that door is the living room. TV, dvd, your basic stuff. Mom and dad's bedroom is down that way along with dad's office. The pool and pool house are out that door. There's a basketball court out there too" Chad said smiling.

Troy's eyes shot up at the mention of basketball.

"I'm guessing you play?"

"Not for a team" Troy said shrugging.

"We'll have to play sometime. I play for the team at school. I guess upstairs is next"

Troy followed Chad out into the living room and up a nice staircase. Chad made a right at the steps leading to several doors. The opposite way Troy saw a few more steps.

"Kayla's room is obviously the one with pink door." He said shooting a smile back a Troy. "Then the one next to it is her playroom"

"Here's my room" Chad said opening a door. Inside was a bright green and orange room. It was very messy and you could barely see the sleigh bed that sat in the middle of the room. A desk sat against the wall with a high-tech laptop on it. Troy noticed a an entire rack that was filled with different watches. A printer type thing sat next to the desk.

"What is that huge thing?" Troy asked.

"Oh! I make my own t-shirts. Like I go out and by the shirt but then come up with the saying or picture that goes on it and print it onto the shirt"

"That's really cool"

"You're room is this way."

They walked back down the hallway past the stairs and up the other few steps. Opening the door, they came to a den.

"Here's where my friends and I mostly hang out. There's a tv, xbox, playstation 2 and 3, and a wii. There's a foosball table and pool table. Mom and dad keep their wet bar up here since they entertain guests up here, but they don't know that we raid it." He said with a guilty smile. "Out the double doors is a hot tub"

"Wow, this is...awesome"

"Your room is right here." Chad opened the door next to his to reveal a royal blue room. There was a sleigh bed with a blue comforter on it. A desk also with a new laptop sat against the wall. A plasma screen sat was mounted on the wall facing the bed. A door was in the corner where Troy assumed the bathroom was.

"This is amazing." Troy said quietly.

"You can unpack if you want"

"It will take me less than five minutes"

"Is that all you have?"

"Yep. I passed down most of my clothes to the other kids"

"Wow. Mom will take you shopping before we leave for Colorado, so don't worry."

"Thanks."

"You can do anything you want with the room. Mom and Dad don't care. My room used to be red but my friends and I painted it one day."

"So I can spray paint on a wall"

"Sure. The parents are totally about creativity and making it your own."

Chad took a seat in the desk chair while Troy put a few t-shirts in the dresser drawers along with three pairs of basketball shorts and two pair of jeans. He pulled a worn pair of basketball tennis shoes out and placed them neatly in the closet. Troy pulled a blue pinstriped button-up out of the bottom up of the bag already on a hanger. A blue tie hung loosely on the hanger. Troy grabbed a few pair of boxers and socks and threw them in the drawers, along with three other beanies.

"We didn't always live like this you know"

Troy shot him a questioning look.

"Until I was 11 years old, we lived in a two bedroom apartment about fifteen minutes away in a rough neighborhood. Then a week before Kayla was born, Dad's business took off and everything happened."

"Wow."

"Yeah so what's your story?"

"Um... When I was 7 my dad was arrested for dealing. He's still in prison. My mom was pretty 'friendly' so there were always guys coming and going in our house. Most of them weren't very nice and were pretty violent. One day the cops showed up and broke down the door. Turns out the guy currently there was a big gangster who the cops had been tracking." Troy looked down at his feet. "When they arrived, the guy was hitting me. Like really wailing on me. They arrested him, then ransacked the house. They found my mom's expansive drug supply and arrested her too. I was placed into child's services. During the short investigation, I lived with my aunt but then was placed into the system after she couldn't take care of me. I was shuffled from foster home to foster home until I was finally sent to a group home in San Diego."

"Wow, that's a lot to go through for only being 17"

"Shit happens. You learn to deal" Troy said shrugging.

"Well luckily for you, you don't have to arrive here and go straight away to school" Chad said smiling. it was the second day of winter break for the students of East High. It was an elite private academy in Albuquerque.

"Yeah, that is a good thing I guess"

"We'll have to go get you a snowboard and everything to go to Colorado"

"I've never been snowboarding or skiing"

"That's okay. I can totally teach you. It's going to be so awesome with you there this year. All of my friends and their family's go so it's going to be a huge group of us"

"Wow"

"Hey boys" Lisa said poking her head in the room.

"Hey mom"

"Hi Mrs. Danforth"

"Did Chad show you around and everything"

"Yes mam" She shot Troy a playfully stern look.

"Sorry" He muttered.

"Mom, you gotta take Troy shopping for some clothes and a snowboard and everything" Chad shot in.

"Okay, we'll go tomorrow"

"It's really okay. You don't have to" Troy said.

"Troy, you're our son now. It's okay" Lisa said gently. Troy just nodded.

"I'm going to bed alright. I'll see you guys in the morning. I love you both"

"Night mom"

"Night Mrs. Danforth. Thank you"

"You're welcome Troy"

"You wanna go play some xbox?"

"Sure"

For the next two hours, Troy and Chad played Halo 3 and NBA Live.

"I'm gonna go to bed. I'll see you in the morning" Chad said. Troy watched him walk down the stairs before walking into his room.

"See ya man" Troy pulled of his jeans and t-shirt, leaving him in a wife beater and boxers. Climbing into the bed, Troy groaned. It was the most comfortable bed he had ever been in. He flipped on the tv and turned it to an old school basketball game before drifting off to sleep.

The next morning, Troy woke up at about 8 and pulled on a his pair of jeans from yesterday. Walking downstairs, he saw that no one was awake.

He turned on the coffee pot before pulling a bagel out of the bag on the counter. Just as he began putting cream cheese on it, Tom walked into the kitchen doing his tie.

"Morning Troy" He said smiling at his new son.

"Morning sir"

"You can call me Tom, Troy" Tom said pouring himself and Troy each a cup of coffee

"Um... is it okay if I don't? At least until I get comfortable with it?" He asked nervously, trying his best to be polite.

"You do whatever you need to, Troy. I won't push you to do anything you aren't ready for" He said placing a hand on Troy's shoulder and squeezing it lightly.

"Morning" Lisa said walking into the kitchen, holding Kayla on her hip.

"Morning daddy" Kayla said, reaching her arms out for Tom.

"How's my princess this morning?" Tom asked as Kayla giggled.

"I'm good daddy"

"Troy, do want me to take you to the mall today or would you and Chad like to go by yourselves?"

"Um... It's whatever easier for you. It doesn't matter to me"

"Well I mean, you and Chad could shopping for snowboarding equipment while I go shopping for clothes for you. I know how boys don't like shopping for stuff like that"

Troy laughed slightly and nodded his head. "Yeah. Well it's up to Chad"

"Okay I'll ask him when he gets up. Do you want eggs or anything"

"I'm good with a bagel and coffee. Thank you though" Troy said, his guard quickly going back up.

"Well I'm going to fix Kayla some if you want some"

"Thank you"

"I've got to get to work, sweetheart. Love you" Tom said quickly pecking Lisa on the lips. He kissed Kayla on the forehead and clapped Troy on the shoulder.

"Love you too" Lisa said

"Love you daddy!"

"See you guys later"

"Um... Chad told me that there was a gym downstairs. Is it okay if I use it?"

"You don't have to ask Troy. This your house now, too" Lisa said with a gentle smile.

"Yes mam"

Troy ran upstairs and changed into a pair of loose basketball shorts, a black wife beater, and his beat up tennis shoes. He then went back downstairs and opened the door to the basement. He walked down the long stairs until he came to a dimly lit concrete hallway. There were several doors. Troy opened the first one he came to and saw piles and piles of cardboard boxes along with other various items.

"Not that door" He mumbled to himself as he continued down the hallway. He opened the next one to see a room with a leather couch, a big screen tv, various video game systems, a pool table, and a wet bar. He figured it must be Tom's lounge or something.

He walked down the rest of the hallway finally coming to the gym. Troy walked into the room to see what looked to be brand new exercise equipment. There was a wall of mirrors and a tv set up in the top right corner.

"Wow" He said out loud.

Troy walked over to the corner where a punching bag was hanging from the ceiling. Seeing tape next to along with a pair of Everlast gloves, Troy picked them up and began getting ready.

As soon as he was, Troy unleashed everything he had at the bag. Wail after wail resounded throughout the room with Troy releasing his anger. As he continued for a good half hour, he didn't even notice someone walk into the room.

"So is that how you release your anger?" Chad asked, leaning casually against the wall with his arms crossed.

"Guess so" Troy said ripping the gloves off to reveal slightly swollen knuckles.

"Are you a boxer?"

"Nope"

"Your pretty good"

"Thanks"

"So mom said that either we can go shopping for snowboarding stuff or go with her. She said that we should wait till we get to Colorado to get a snowboard but we can go on and get you like jackets and pants and stuff. You wanna let her do the shopping though? She's pretty good at it" Chad said with a laugh.

"That sounds good"

"I was supposed to meet up with some of my friends for dinner tonight then maybe go bowling. You wanna come? Meet everybody that's gonna be in Colorado?"

"Um... are you sure it's okay if I come?"

"Oh definitely. I've been telling them about you" Troy's head shot up and he glared at Chad.

"Not like what you told me last night. Just that you were my new brother from San Diego"

"Okay" Troy said calming down a bit.

"So you wanna come?"

"Uh... sure"

"Good. So I'm gonna get ready to go to the mall." Chad said walking out of the room. A few moments later, Troy followed upstairs.

"Hey man. You ready?" Chad asked walking into the bedroom, his afro still slightly wet. He was pulling a blue t-shirt over his head.

"Yeah" Troy said slipping on his Vans. His faded black jeans hung loosely on his waist.

They walked downstairs to see Lisa putting a few things into her purse.

"So we're gonna drop off Kayla at Nicky's house, then head to the mall"

Troy climbed into the back seat of the Mercedes while Lisa made sure Kayla was securely strapped in her booster seat.

"Hi Troy" Kayla said turning towards him and smiling shyly.

"Hi Kayla"

"You have pretty eyes" She said looking at his aqua blue eyes.

Troy blushed "Thanks"

"So Troy what kind of clothes do you like?" Lisa asked after they had dropped Kayla off.

"Um... I wear a lot of beanies and hats. Vans. Um... I don't really know since I've never had much choice. Button ups I guess too." Troy said with a slight laugh.

Later on that day, they returned home from the mall with many sacks from various stores.

"Troy, why don't you go look at what I bought and if you don't like it, we can easily take it back"

"Ok, thanks um... Lisa" He said smiling shyly at her.

"No problem, Troy"

Troy and Chad took all of the bags upstairs and Troy began to take the clothes out of it. After laying out all of the clothes, he saw that Lisa had bought him a couple of plaid button ups. She had also bought him about 6 pairs of jeans. The majority of the jeans were dark or black and straight legged. There were about fifteen t-shirts of different colors or had graphics on them. She had bought him about five pairs of shoes including a two new pairs of vans. One pair was black and had a picture of a gold skull on it while the other pair was checkered. She had bought him a pair of white chuck taylors and a dark blue pair.

Opening another bag, he discovered tons of beanies. There were solid colored ones and ones with designs on them. He opened one of the last sacks and discovered three new hoodies. In the last sack, there was a solid black pea coat that he loved.

Rushing downstairs, he found Lisa sitting in the living room watching Oprah.

"Lisa?"

"Oh Troy! Did you look at all of your new clothes?" Lisa asked standing up.

Troy just walked over and hugged her.

"Thank you" He whispered.

"You're welcome" She whispered back. Troy pulled back, with a stunned look at what he just did.

"I'm sorry"

"Troy, it's okay to show your emotions. You don't have to hold them all in"

"I feel like I need to. I haven't actually showed my emotions fully since I was 10 years old"

"You can now Troy."

"Yo Troy! We're gonna leave in about fifteen minutes. That okay?" Chad said sticking his head in the room.

"Yeah. I'm gonna go get dressed." He said smiling. Troy went to his room quickly jumped into the shower. After getting out, he pulled on a pair of jeans, a v-neck white tee, and a red plaid button up. Troy slipping on a pair his new checkered vans. He grabbed pea coat that he had hung up and quickly pulled it on.

He walked out of his room and downstairs to see Chad watching Oprah.

"Dude, are you watching Oprah?"

"Hey! It's a manly show too"

"Are we leaving?"

"Yeah. C'mon" Troy and Chad walked out to the garage and to the green Land Rover Troy had seen earlier.

* * *

**It's kinda long for a first chapter but it would have been awkward I think to cut it off anywhere else. Please review cuz it means a lot to me.**


	2. You Don't Even Know Me

**So thanks to everyone who read the first chapter. I hope you liked it. I had 80 something read it but only three reviews so maybe if I could have a few more, it would definitely make me happy and post a new chapter faster.**

**So I hope you like the chapter.**

**_You Don't Even Know Me_**

The two boys sat in Chad's Land Rover, driving down the streets of Albuquerque. Chad was pointing out places that he and his friends liked to go.

"That's our school, East High." Chad said driving by a large brick building with a large red and white E on the front. "It's actually pretty fun for school, not that I like it though. That's Gabi and Tay's deal. They love school and are on the scholastic decathalon team" Troy just nodded his head along with everything Chad said, not really knowing who the people were.

"So my friend, Zeke, his parents own this diner close to school. It's where a lot of people hang out and plus we get free food since his parents own it"

"Nice"

Five minutes later, he pulled into the parking lot of what looked like a 1950's diner.

Troy followed Chad into the diner. There were various groups of teenagers inside the diner. Chad walked directly to one group consisting of 3 boys and 4 girls. Troy immediately recognized one of the girls as the girl from last night.

Her teddy bear brown eyes met his aqua blue ones and wouldn't look away. The two just stood there staring at each other. Troy managed to rip his eyes away and look around the rest of the group who were all sitting in a large semi-circled booth. There was a preppy blond wearing almost all pink who was sitting on the lap of a tall African-American guy. Next to them was a broad shouldered dark-haired guy who had a small, mousy brown haired girl snuggled into his side. A dark skinned girl in a polo and jeans came up and wrapped her arms around Chad, who promptly kissed her. The blond haired guy sat by himself but smiling. The fedora on his head was tilted to the side.

"Guys, this is Troy. Troy this is Sharpay, Zeke, Jason, Kelsi, Ryan, Taylor my girlfriend, and Gabriella."

"Hey." Troy said nodding his head but turning back to Gabriella.

"We already ordered three plates of fries and burgers for everyone. Don't worry, Gabs, we ordered you a veggie burger." Zeke said as everyone took a seat at the table. Troy was on the end while Gabriella was on the other end across from him.

He brought his eyes up to meet hers for the third time. Troy gave her a small smile and she smiled back before blushing and turning away.

"So Troy, you're going to Colorado, right?" Sharpay asked.

"Yeah."

"Good. We're staying in Daddy's penthouse while the parents stay in the cabin on the mountain."

"Sounds cool, I guess." Gabriella giggled slightly at his hesitance. Troy smiled too, loving the sound of her laugh.

"It's great, Troy. You'll love it." Gabriella said.

"I'm sure." He said with a hint of a smile.

"You guys ready to head to the bowling alley?" Zeke asked fifteen minutes later.

"Yeah let's go" The gang walked out of the diner and into the cold winter air.

"Okay so Chad, I'm riding with you. Shar's riding with Zeke. Kelsi's riding Jase. Troy, are you gonna ride with Chad?" Taylor questioned.

"I'll save him from the torture of watching you two be sickeningly cute and let him ride with me" Gabriella said, which earned her a glare from Taylor.

"We are not sickeningly cute." Chad groaned.

"Yes we are baby." Taylor said kissing him on the cheek.

Gabriella led Troy to her black Audi and climbed in.

Every once in a while, Troy would notice Gabriella shooting him small glances while driving.

"So what do you wanna ask?" He finally said.

"Excuse me?"

"I know you're just itching to ask me questions. Most likely about how I ended up living with the Danforths."

"No! It's not my business." Gabriella said, keeping her eyes focused on the road.

"My dad's in jail, my mom's boyfriends beat me, and she sold drugs." Troy said bluntly.

"Um... wow."

"Yeah, but it's okay. I'm over it."

"I doubt that." She muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I doubt that you're over everything that's happened. It's like impossible to be over something like that."

"How would you know?" He spat.

"You don't even know me, so don't judge me"

"I'm sorry. You're right." Troy whispered after a few moments.

"It's okay. I shouldn't have assumed that you wouldn't be okay. For all I know, you've gone to a therapist or something."

"I haven't. I just have other ways of dealing."

"Like smoking?" She asked smirking.

"Maybe."

"It'll kill ya. I've seen it."

"You have your reasons for not smoking and I have mine for smoking." Troy shrugged.

"Here we go."

A few hours later, the gang was walking out of the bowling alley.

"Hey Gabs? Can you take Troy home? I gotta take Tay since Shar can't."

"Yeah, as long as Troy's cool with it."

"It's fine with me." Troy said, shrugging.

"Thanks Gabs." Chad said quickly hugging her before Taylor did the same.

"See ya, girl." Taylor said before getting in Chad's car.

"So are you liking the Danforth's?" Gabriella asked once they were on the way home.

"Yeah, they're really nice. I just- I just feel like I owe them for than I can give them."

"They don't want repayment for adopting you Troy. They did this because they wanted to, not because they wanted something i return." She said reassuringly.

"Maybe but I just feel useless. They're like buying me all these new clothes and taking me on trips and I just feel like I should pay them back money."

"They won't let you get a job because of school. They won't let Chad either."

"Seriously?"

"Yep."

"Then how do I pay for stuff."

"Your allowance or they will give you money whenever you need something." Gabriella said as they turned into the neighborhood and passed through the gate.

"It seems like I shouldn't get money for doing anything though."

"Well you do have chores to do, too. You and Chad will split the chores that he used to have to do all by himself."

"Thanks for the ride home, Brie." Troy said leaning over and kissing her lightly on the cheek before getting out of the car and walking into the house. Gabriella was left blushing as she drove next door.

**Hope it was good. Reviews are greatly appreciated.**


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